Bad Company’s Paul Rodgers Says He Suffered 2 Major, 11 Minor Strokes in the Past 7 Years

Bad Company’s Paul Rodgers is opening up about a terrifying health crisis.

The rocker told CBS Mornings on Wednesday (Sept. 27), where he revealed that he suffered two major strokes — one in 2016 and another in 2019 — as well as 11 minor strokes, a situation which almost ended his music career.

“I couldn’t do anything to be honest,” he explained. “I couldn’t speak. That was the very strange thing. You know, I’d prepare something in my mind and I’d say it, but that isn’t what came out and I’d go, ‘What the heck did I just say?’”

After his 2019 stroke, he underwent a carotid endarterectomy to remove plaque from the arteries running through his neck to the brain. The doctors warned Rodgers about some serious risks, given that the procedure site was close to his vocal chords. “They told me, they’re very clear, ‘You may not come out of this alive.’ And I said, ‘Oh, well, that’s a plus, isn’t it?’” Rodgers joked. “Fingers crossed, you know? And when I woke up, I opened my eyes, I thought, ‘Oh, I’m still here.’”

His recovery was long, but Rodgers was able to return to play music six months later. “Each thing was a step forward. Each thing that I did was an achievement. ‘Oh, I can do this. I can sing,’” he recalled.

The rocker is fresh off his first solo album in more than two decades, Midnight Rose, which he says was “kind of a miracle” to complete.